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RE-ESTABLISHMENT Of FHNA:
Between 1998 and 2005, the FHNA became quiescent and had no other issues. The organization almost lapsed. In 2005 the neighbors were very concerned with the seemingly uncontrolled development at the strip mall known as the Village of Fruit Hill. The Village is only a few streets away from the heart of our neighborhood. At about the same time, the neighbors began to notice increased traffic and speeding throughout Fruit Hill Avenue. There were increased accidents on this stretch of the road from Rhode Island College entrance road on Fruit Hill Avenue to three quarters of a mile away at St. James Church. Fatal accidents were on the increase, mostly caused by speeding. The RI State Planning Office and Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) tell us that the design used in 1967-9 would not be permitted in today’s highway design for a road which
bisects an old residential area with many historic homes. This sort of highway design was aimed at allowing many more vehicles to travel to and from the new second entrance to the state college. Therefore we were stuck in a design that contributed to speeding and accidents and made walking, biking and even talking at a normal tone of voice difficult and unsafe for anyone on or near the roadway. Unfortunately the road design never included correcting hidden curves, elevation changes nor blind spots. The road widening simply followed the original 1750 horse and cattle lane, when speed was more forgiving without cars.
In early 2005 we met with 75 neighbors who wanted traffic calming, safer sidewalks, fewer accidents as well as desiring the Village at Fruit Hill to offer goods and services that blended into the family network of our residential neighborhood and not another night club atmosphere. In the last thirty years we have already experienced two night clubs in the Village area with late night fights, and loud music. Police details were necessary most weekends. It took a murder to close the first night club in the Village area twenty-five years ago. It took hundreds of citizen complains to close the second night club five years ago. Three years ago another organization had sought to open another “night club”. This became the latest effort to disrupt the quiet residential neighborhood atmosphere and brought out hundreds of concerned citizens giving donations to help fight the attempt to bring back a night club. The permits were not approved by Zoning, Planning nor the Town Council.
Our association wanted to confront speeding and accidents on Fruit Hill Avenue. To this end we sought the approval of the Town Council and Mayor to help us enforce zoning ordinances and request design changes from RIDOT that would encourage and support traffic calming along Fruit Hill Avenue. We were rewarded with lively interest from the Town Council, the Mayor and RIDOT. Within a few months our membership rose to over one hundred members and an immediate reorganization of: By Laws, Election of Officers, reregistering with the RI Secretary of State as a Non-Profit organization, establishing our logo stationary and a U.S. Post Office mail box. We were beginning to make a difference in our neighborhood.
Within a few weeks we heard from the Director of RIDOT with a clear understanding of our traffic calming needs. The Mayor was impressed
enough with our plight that he spoke to our U.S. Representative Kennedy seeking a possible federal grant that would include major traffic calming at the key intersection of Fruit Hill Avenue and Olney Avenue. Using the conceptual designs of a highly skilled highway designer, we advocated a design using the now popular traffic roundabout to slow traffic and increase safety for vehicles and pedestrians. This intersection currently has no marked crosswalks, only two stop signs where five lanes meet with a curve that obstructs line of sight north and south. The roundabout engineering design is ready for the bid process used by RIDOT with construction to begin in the spring of 2010. Bump outs are planned for 2009.
The Association and our governmental representatives have met frequently to plan, design and approve other traffic calming measures discussing narrowing the lanes with “bump out curbs”, a new road striping plan, and increased police surveillance. The police tell us giving speeding tickets on Fruit Hill Avenue is like taking candy form a baby. Every time they look for speeders it only takes a few minutes to spot a speeder going more than fifteen miles per hour over the posted speed limit.
Tree planting became our first priority in 2006-07. Our first priority was to replace some of the cherry trees lost to disease and aging since the RIDOT planted them during road construction in 1967-69. With a $2000 matching grant challenge from the Fruit Hill Volunteer Firemen’s Association, we raised the match. Working with the Town Administration we purchased and planted 30 large cherry trees along Fruit Hill Avenue in the Spring of 2007. The sites included the land in front of several of our not for profit institutions : i.e. Bradley Hospital, Rhode Island College, and St. Mary’s Home for Children. If these plantings were contracted by a landscape nursery, the cost could easily exceed $15,000.00 which would also include weekly soaking with portable water truck, as we did with the Town.
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